In a sandbox MMO, setting a goal for yourself can be really important. Unlike a themepark MMO, you are not led through the world by your nose from one area to the next. Sure, The Repopulation has quests, but nothing like the usual MMO. If you don't set a goal for yourself, it is very likely you'll end up without any direction and thus leaving the game.
Crafting is a huge part of The Repopulation, which I enjoy. So my first thought was that I wanted to craft a weapon. This is a monumental task, requiring tons of materials from all sorts of crafting disciplines. Can it be done? Sure. Is it something a new player should set out to do? Probably not. Instead, I set my sights a bit lower.
Stims (or potions) are useful and a bit easier to make. This is not WoW though, you don't just pick a flower and make a potion. That's part of it, but there are a lot more steps. You need the medical compound, you need an injector, and you need some other various ingredients. The injector was the main hurdle for me, as it requires a Refined Surgical Stainless Steel Bar. This is made using the Variegated Alloy recipe, which requires a mining skill of 500.
So, it was clear that I was not going to make stims anytime soon. Instead, I found someone who was already doing it and asked what I could do to help. He had the skills needed to actually make it, but needed help with raw materials. So I went out in to the world and started mining and logging. This got my skills up, plus made me a good amount of credits.
It also gave me something to do, helped me learn the game, explore the world, and generally advance. I am not at the point where I could craft them all by myself. The material cost is still daunting, but more about that next time.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Setting a Goal
